FORT MYERS, Fla. — Longtime Boston Globe baseball writer Nick Cafardo has died after collapsing at the team’s spring training ballpark.
The newspaper said Cafardo had an embolism Thursday and Red Sox medical staff was unable to revive him.
He was 62.
Nick Cafardo, our widely respected baseball columnist, died Thursday in Fort Myers, Fla. He was 62.
We will miss him dearly.https://t.co/vHTFm5cq0W pic.twitter.com/FjhYvm3Mrf
— Boston Globe Sports (@BGlobeSports) February 21, 2019
Cafardo joined the Globe in 1989 and covered the Red Sox before switching to the New England Patriots in time for the team’s first NFL championship in 2001. He returned to baseball and has covered the Red Sox and the major leagues for the past 15 years.
He was covering spring training on Thursday when he collapsed on a sidewalk outside the Red Sox clubhouse. The paper said it was his day off but “Cafardo’s love of baseball and commitment to his craft compelled him to report to JetBlue Park.”
“Nick was one of the best people to ever walk through our doors — generous with his time and insights, immensely knowledgeable, deeply devoted to the Globe,” Globe editor Brian McGrory said. “He had a view of the Red Sox and the game on a national scale that is virtually unrivaled.
“For those reasons, he was one of our most read writers, constantly attracting followers near and far, his weekly baseball notes column being destination reading for tens of thousands of people.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.